“this tragic incident shows the risks that vulnerable migrants take when they, in good faith, seeking a better life,” says IOM’s chief in Djibouti Lalini Veerassamy.
The two boats left the country on Tuesday morning, but sank in heavy seas after half an hour.
Witnesses tell the story of how rescue workers search for survivors at the port city of Obock to the south of the Godaria, where the boats cast loose, but to a large extent forced to work with to raise the dead.
One of the 16 survivors are found, has revealed that an estimated 130 people were on board his boat, but he does not know how many were in the other.
Djibouti, in the horn of Africa, has in recent years become a starting point for migrants trying to get to the Arabian peninsula in search of work.
